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| -Short Attention Span Theater- | |
| Air-con and lack of sleep promote obesity | |
| 2006-06-27 | |
David Allison, an obesity researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, US, and colleagues have published a paper questioning the importance of what they call the "Big Two" obesity factors: overeating as a result of junk food marketing and lack of exercise. In the US the proportion of the population defined as obese increased by 60% between 1991 and 2000, so that now almost a quarter of all Americans are obese. Most researchers tend to attribute the increase to a more sedentary lifestyle and overeating driven partly by aggressive corporate food marketing. But Allison says that the evidence for the Big Two is far from conclusive. "What seems intuitively to be right is not always right. This might be an example where the rush to judgment may have negative effects," Allison says. For example, some studies have found no correlation between the number of hours children spend in school physical education classes and the proportion who are overweight. Others have failed to find a connection between being overweight and a proximity to fast food restaurants or consumption of soft drinks. The researchers drew up a list of 10 factors that might have as much or more to do with increasing waistlines as the Big Two. For instance, they point out that studies show that people who do not get enough sleep have increased appetites. Notably the amount of sleep an average US adult gets has decreased from nine hours to seven hours in the last several decades. Heating and air conditioning might also be to blame. When people and animals go above or below a "thermoneutral" ambient temperature, they lose weight - if it is too cold they burn fat to stay warm, and if too hot their appetites decrease. But studies show that people are keeping their houses warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than they did a few decades ago, so these natural influences on weight are negated. Other possibilities include the decrease in the number of people who smoke - which suppresses appetite - environmental endocrine disruptors, an ageing population, and an increase in babies born to older women - which are more likely to be obese. Another possibility is that overweight people are more likely to marry one another and give birth to children genetically predisposed to be overweight themselves. Barbara Rolls, an obesity researcher at Penn State University in University Park, US, says that the paper is provocative, but it makes a good point that obesity probably has many contributing causes. "In the end, though, it boils down to what you eat and how much you move. I still don't think we should lose our focus on those variables," she says. Journal reference: International Journal of Obesity (DOI:10.1038/sj.ijo.0803326) | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #7 soooo....for his point to be true, all I have to do is turn off the heat and ac and sleep all day then I can eat all I want, get no exercise and my weight will be whatever it would have been anyway. I like it. Funny though, when I eat everything I want and get enough sleep I still gain weight. Hmmm ...that just doesn't make sense according to his theory. Go figure (pun intended) |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-06-27 16:14 |
| #6 Lets see... Am I fat becuase I work in an air-con office and dont sleep much? Or becuase I snack down like a starved pig in the evening and only give my home gym and bicycle a passing glance (if I feel particulary strong) on the way to the refrigerator? Tough call.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-06-27 16:11 |
| #5 is by a sedentary lifestyle and aggressive marketing by the food industry, according to a research article that challenges the conventional wisdom. Yeah because the food companies put a gun to peoples heads and force them to eat their products. They are so aggressive and the poor dumb people are just mindless sheep. This line so stinks of crypto-marxist nonsense that I can't take any of the rest of the claims seriously. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-06-27 15:23 |
| #4 Yes, it's not my fault at all if I'm fat, I already knew that, but thanks for confirming. Besides, I'm not fat, I'm big-boned. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-06-27 15:22 |
| #3 1) Anyone who tries to take my air conditioning away from me is going to turn into gator bait before they know what hit them. 2) EJ, they actually sort of do have Lojack for kids. Babies, anyway.....pretty much every maternity ward has them now. Give them time and they just might tweak 'em for the older kids. |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2006-06-27 15:18 |
| #2 Could there be another link not mentioned? Lack of infection? When I am ill I stop eating. In the past people were constantly attacked by illnesses, nowadays children pop an anti-biotic and bingo back to health. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-06-27 12:44 |
| #1 .Obesity is just as likely to be caused by lack of sleep and too much air-conditioning as it is by a sedentary lifestyle and aggressive marketing by the food industry, according to a research article that challenges the conventional wisdom. Personally I blame the media and nanny state. TheyÂ’ve scared mothers so much, that the tikes are imprisoned in their homes for fear of anything outside the four walls. When I was a kid, we played in the development street, we generally ran among the group for hours away from the steps of our homes ranging for a mile or more, it was nothing to walk or bike to the store to see what new comic or toy has shown up on the shelves [not that weÂ’d be able to buy it anytime soon], but we could afford a pack of baseball cards or the like. It was nothing to drop us off at the local theater Saturday morning and pick us up after the show. Going to JohnnyÂ’s house, just be back by 5. Out of sight, out of mind. Today, its escort duty everyplace you go. WeÂ’ve reach the point where Lojack devices are soon for your kid. ItÂ’s all the result of using feelings over brain. You know if you off child molesters and/or false accusers of child molesters, thereÂ’d be a lot less need of chaining your kid to the living room couch. ItÂ’s amazing what quick, swift justice would do for reducing threats. It would also produce an environment that would permit for better health by removing the prisons [housebound] all the good people are sentense to in order to pander to sociopaths. |
| Posted by: Elmert Jinetle8240 2006-06-27 12:28 |